Running App Reveals Top Secret Security Info

Photo: pixabay

This article in Washington Post entitled US Soldiers are revealing sensitive and dangerous information by jogging was published yesterday.

I encourage you to read the article, but the gist is that the GPS/satellite in the Running app Strava can lead to disclosure of personal information when simultaneously using the sharing social aspect of the app and that this can be disastrous where, for example, the runner is a soldier in a war zones.

According to the article:

Strava says it has 27 million users around the world, including people who own widely available fitness devices such as Fitbit, Jawbone and Vitofit, as well as people who directly subscribe to its mobile app. The map is not live — rather, it shows a pattern of accumulated activity between 2015 and September 2017.

Most parts of the United States and Europe, where millions of people use some type of fitness tracker, show up on the map as blazes of light because there is so much activity.

No mention was made of other similar running apps such as Runkeeper, Runtastic or Nike.

For another perspective, see this article from the Guardian.